Northern Flicker - (Yellow-shafted) femaleColaptes auratus
Sept. 21, 2007
Flickers are common woodpeckers, they eat ants. The yellow feathers in her tail are just barely visible, the underside of her flight feathers are yellow too. This photo was taken through my dining room window early in the morning. I had really been wanting to get a Flicker photo to finish out my Tennessee woodpeckers, so I was happy to see her and her mate sitting and preening in the silver maple tree.
It is fun to watch a courting pair in the spring as they call and bob their heads back and forth! The female does not have the "moustache" that the male has, so it is easy to identify her. (see male in next photo)